Commencement Speaker Dr. Lawrence Cunningham Speech

Dr. Lawrence Cunningham
Fall 2014 Commencement Speech
University of Guam
Thank you Dr. Underwood, for that very kind and generous introduction.
Lady’s and gentlemen, honored guests, distinguished faculty, staff, and especially the
graduates and your parents, I’m honored by this opportunity.
Forty-six years ago, my wife and I were smitten with wanderlust. Our goal was to work
our way around the world in five years. Longfellow, perhaps, captures our sentiments
best, “I plowed the land with horses, but my heart was ill at ease, for the old seafaring
men, came to me now and then, with their sagas of the seas.” We bid farewell to our old
Kentucky homes and drove across the United States and Canada, to Alaska and south to
San Francisco. And then, embarked for what became an auspicious landfall, Guam.
I will never forget our first fiesta. I read the food table as a history of Guam. It looked
like a potluck at the United Nations. Our wanderlust transmogrified into what Eduardo
Galliano calls wanderlust’s shadow word, wonderment. We had found a multi-cultural
microcosm of the world in Guam, and I had found my life’s work, Exploring Guam.
As you graduate and commence your career, I believe a couple of lessons I have learned
will help you in your pursuit of happiness. First, we deserve a better political status, and
second, team work trumps individualism.
The Supreme Court, in the 1901 Insular Cases, defined Guam as an unincorporated and
unorganized US territory. This racist decision states that the people of Guam, the
Philippines and Puerto Rico will never be able to master Anglo-Saxon democratic values
and will never be able to become a fully incorporated part of the US. Other races
Supreme Court decisions, such as Dred Scott, and Plessy vs. Ferguson have been
overturned. But the Insular Cases still stand. Next February, American Samoans will be
represented in the US, District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals. Neil Weare will
deliver oral arguments that challenge the Insular Cases. Neil, a graduate of Southern High
School, Guam, and Yale Law School, began his political status research, right here, at the
Richard Flores Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center.
Of course, Guam has improved its political status since 1901. The 1950 Organic Act
made the people of Guam US citizens, and organized the government, but Guam remains
an unincorporated territory. The journey is not complete. The Organic Act is an
apocryphal Constitution and serves to vale Guam’s colonial status.
Army Reserve Sgt. Tricia Santos, who graduated from Southern High School was a
friend and classmate of Neil Weare. She was a University of Guam student who finished
her undergraduate degree at Fordham University. Sgt. Santos served in Afghanistan in
2011 and 2012. Her commanding officer was adamant that all of his soldiers be good
citizens. He expedited the soldiers obtaining absentee ballots so that they could vote for
the President of the US. When Sgt. Tricia Santos told him that she could not vote for
President because she was a resident of Guam, he did not believe her. He replied,
“Residents of Guam are US citizens. Of course they can vote for President.” She
responded, “Yes, I’m a US citizen, but I do not have the privilege of voting for the
President of the US.” Simultaneously, Sgt. Santos and her commanding office realized
the irony and injustice in this fact. One of the avowed reasons the US sent troops to Iraq
and Afghanistan was to build democratic nations in the Middle East. We were fighting
so that Iraqis and Afghans could vote for their leaders and commander in chief. Our
troops were separated from their families, risking their lives and even dying so that Iraqis
and Afghans can vote and yet we have American citizens that cannot vote for their
President. This injustice cannot stand.
Surely, if we can spend billions of American dollars and American lives for a democratic
Middle East then we can find a way so US citizens in Guam can vote for their President.
Our country was founded upon de-colonization. In the case of George Washington, decolonization was as American as cherry pie. Right now, Guam’s political status is on the
back burner, but it will never be off the stove until justice is done. An improvement in
political status that establishes a free market economy will remove the Jones Act and
cabotage and spark Guam’s economy in a way that we have not seen since 1962 when the
Naval Security Clearance was lifted. Within five years of that political change, Guam
established a tourism industry. When we make demands to improve Guam’s political
status, it’s not a demand for some precious gift or favor. In the paraphrased words of
Frederick Douglass, it’s just a simple question. Will our country live up to it’s own
principles? That is, the belief that legitimate governments must have the consent of the
governed, that citizens are equal and the government is truly of the people, by the people
and for the people.
Based on my experience, the most important factors in my successes, and I must confess,
also in my failures, has been how well I mastered the concepts of inafa’maolek and todu
manatungo’.
Teamwork trumps individualism. Inafa’maolek is defined as
interdependence, getting along and literally, making it good for each other. Todu
manatungo’ is defined as consensus decision-making. These concepts are not unique to
Chamorro culture. All social cultural characteristics, good and bad, can be found in every
culture on earth. Nevertheless, we know that cultures differ in the emphasis they place
on these cultural characteristics. For example, hospitality is known in every culture, but
we all know that there is a greater degree of hospitality in Guam than in New York City.
Through my study of Marianas history and living in Guam I have learned that I am most
successful when I suppress my selfish individualism and lean towards interdependence
and working well with others. The extreme emphasis that Chamorro culture places on
inafa’maolek is revealed in a creation myth. Myths can be a window into the heart and
soul of a culture. In the beginning, according to Chamorro mythology, there was
nothingness, and out of this void were born a brother and sister, Puntan and Fuuana.
We can learn a valuable lesson from this myth. In ancient Chamorro culture it was not
god the father, nor was it god the mother, but rather gods the brother and sister. And here
is the important part. It was only through their cooperation and working with one another
that they created the universe. There is a lesson in emphasis here, if the gods need to
cooperate then surely your success in a career will depend upon your ability to work with
others. The practice of inafa’maolek is not a panacea. It will not remove all conflict, but
it is an attitude and a goal to work towards.
One might think that writing a book is a matter of individual effort, but I could not have
written Ancient Chamorro Society or any other book without the unselfish help of many
others. When the American Library Association named Ancient Chamorro Society as one
of their choice books for 1992, I could not take credit without acknowledging the 80
people that selflessly helped me write the book.
One of my most recent failures began when an organization I belonged to abandoned a
ten-year practice of consensus decision-making. TASI (Traditions About Seafaring
Islands), fractured into four separate organizations all dedicated to the restoration of the
building and sailing of traditional outrigger sailing canoes and to traditional noninstrument navigation. The most prominent of those four groups are TASI with its canoe
house at the Paseo de Susana and TASA with a canoe house at Ypao Beach. Let me give
you an example of how infa’maolek and todu manatungo’ operate in an island setting. In
1969 my wife and I visited Yap proper. We had permission to camp in the coastal village
of Wanead in Maap. At that time, in Maap, there were no roads only stone and grass
paths. Our stay in Wanead was idyllic. Even though we had brought our own food to
cook, children came at every mealtime with breadfruit leaf platters of cooked fish, taro
and sweet potatoes. One day our host, Garongsi, invited me to a house warming party
about 1½ miles south of our encampment. We were very excited. The next day we awoke
in an insouciant mood, “We’re going to a party!” We could hardly wait for noon when
we started our walk along the east coast of Maap to the new house. Most of the walk was
beautiful Japanese grass. The path looked like a linear golf green. On our left were lines
of stately coconut palms, stands of nipa, the wide reef at low tide and the beautiful ocean
beyond. On our right was dense jungle interspersed with flowering hibiscus bushes and
fertile taro patches. When we approached the new house, its nipa roof glowed in the
sunlight. In front of the house there were several dozen men. They were shirtless and the
younger men wore a cloth loin-cloth and older men wore a hibiscus fiber loin-cloth.
There were NO women present. Garongsi greeted me with a big smile that soon changed
to a look of concern when he saw my wife. He quickly escorted us about 50 yards away
from the house warming party. He excused himself and said that he would return for us
as soon as possible. Later, I learned that the men debated whether they should allow my
wife to attend the party. The debate went something like this: “We can all agree we want
this man and woman to enjoy this day.” Some thought that my wife should be able to
attend the party because she was not Yapese. Others said “No. She may not be Yapese,
but still, she is a woman and this is a men’s party.” This discussion went on for an hour
with the winning argument being, we want this man to enjoy himself, if his wife comes to
the party he may misinterpret the attention we give his wife and be jealous. That could
cause conflict. We all know that he will enjoy himself more if his wife does not attend the
party and furthermore, without his wife here we know that he will be able to drink as
much as he wants to. In western culture this decision could have been made in a few
minutes with a vote, but the islanders took the time to reach a consensus decision. When
the vote is taken there are winners and losers and often acrimony. When a consensus is
reached, there are no losers. Everyone wins. But, what was to become of my wife? This
is where the infa’maolek comes in. As soon as the consensus decision had been reached,
runners were dispatched to find out if the women would like to have a party and host my
wife. When they agreed, beautiful baskets were woven out of young yellow coconut
leaves and filled with food and bundles of green drinking coconuts were gathered. The
beautiful freshly woven yellowish green baskets were decorated with red hibiscus
flowers. Garongsi and his caravan of food-laden baskets, escorted my wife to a women’s
party. I joined the men’s party and we both had a memorable day. The literal definition
of infa’maolek, was truly met. It was a good day for everyone. The process wasn’t easy.
It forced the group to take some time and make some sacrifices. The quest for harmony
made it all worthwhile.
In conclusion, my bride of 50 years would never let me live it down if I didn’t get to the
wonderment part: take time to smell the plumeria, open yourself to Guam and Guam’s
people’s unspeakable beauty. Perhaps a slightly modified Robert Louis Stevenson
couplet, that our precocious granddaughter, Alana, likes, best express my wife’s feelings:
Guam “is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.”
Take time to nap, cha-cha-cha, listen to the music, the sound of rain on a tin roof, the
ubiquitous cock’s crow, the heart healing chant of the techa and always be ready to heed
the following noble words: “Shoot, let’s barbeque!”
Guam is good and the University of Guam’s Tritons Fall Class of 2014 shall make Guam
even better. In this holy season, God bless us each and everyone. Thank you.

Download Report